10 days Europe trip from India

Introduction about trip:  

Booked flights via ixigo. Had planned the entire trip about 3 months earlier. Obtained the multi-entry Schengen visa for Europe. This was compulsory as in our whole trip, we were going to spend maximum number of days in Croatia but our first landing country was Italy. So we had to take Schengen visa with multiple entry feature. Schengen visa is valid for non-Schengen country also. Our plan was to land in Italy at around 1:30 pm in their local time. 

Then visit the Colosseum area in that evening. Next day, before leaving Italy at 1:30 pm we would visit Vetican city area including Sistin Chappal. Then we would depart for Ancona from Rome terminal to board a ship for Split, Croatia. Ancona arrival time was 5:30 pm and our ship's departure time was 8:30 pm. We reached on time. We arrived Split early around 7:30 am. After two days of visit in Split, our next destination was Dubrovnik, Croatia. After spending two days in Dubrovnik, we would go for Plitvice lake via night journey bus from Dubrovnik to Karlovac and then to Plitvice Lake. After visiting Plitvice lake National park our plan was to leave for Zagreb, Croatia and to reach there by 5:30 pm. Our next destination was Venice. So, for Zagreb to Venice, we had booked the bus which would arrive Venice around 12:30 am. After spending the day in Venice we would catch the Trenitallia train from Venice to Paris. By early morning around 9-10 am, we'd be in the fashion capital city of the world. Spending the full day and night we'd then be back to the Paris airport for our home, India. Our Paris to Bangalore flight departure time was 11:10 am via Italy and Delhi. This would be my first foreign trip. And it would be of total 10-11 days.

Day 1(04-05-19):

Departed roughly around 11:30pm from home for Bangalore airport. Used my priority passes to get into visa card lounges at international lounges in Bangalore.

It was 13 hrs Qatar airlines flight to Rome. Departure was 3:45am from Bangalore and arrival was next day 1:30pm in Rome. We had red wines in the air plus three seats for two of us as one was vacant.

 

Day 2(05-05-19): 

Had booked the tickets 2 months earlier for Colosseum at 5:45pm entry. But it took lot of time at the Rome airport  for immigration check. We came out from immigration counter and without wasting any minute we exchanged 4000 rupees to euros from forex counter which costs us around 90 rupees per euros. A bit high. When we came out from the airport, it was like we were somewhere in hilly area climate. It was chilly wind. Our Bus was going to depart from few steps ahead of us but I saw, my memsab was shivering. I felt that chilly wind too. Just two steps ahead behind one building pillar, I opened my suitcase. Took out one jacket and put it on my memsab body. Now she could move and we boarded the Bus which was 2 pillars ahead of us. We bought Bus ticket to Rome City. We could leave the airport at around 4 pm. Rode a direct Bus for Rome City. 

Don't remember where we got down, but we walked from there to reach our booked residence on airbnb. It took around 10-15 min by walk to reach there. After reaching we couldn't call or contact our host. We took help from two local girls who were bypassing us. She called the host from her phone. We could see the host now waving from her balcony.

It was now 5:55pm there. We changed the dress as it was quite windy and chilled there. Host was quite helpful she helped us to book the cab which took 11 euros to get there at Colosseum. At the entry point it was 6:08pm which was 23 minutes late from the scheduled entry time but they allowed us fortunately. It was quite chilled there. I could see my love shivering, covering her ears from stubborn windy weather. 

Took many clicks as it was Rome, our first foreign City in spite of that cruel wind.

 

Met one of African fraud selling his belongings. Bypassing him somehow, we came back to our lovely host place via City Bus from the Bus Stop where we could see hardly a person waiting. Got down at our host's nearby Bus Stop. Don't remember the name. After 5 minutes of walk we could finally took a breath of  relief in that City in that lovely cosy quilt. She could hardly feel her. We were exhausted. Totally.

 

Day 3(06-05-19):

Omg. It was 9. We had planned to visit sistin Chapel and  she had no energy. We woke up around 9:30, starving to death. So decided to have Italian Pizza instead going for sistin Chapel. Went outside and we walked around the city a bit and entered in a shop of local Pizza.

     

Unlike India, they don't accept digital payment. We paid around 3-4 euros. Next thing we had to do is to withdraw cash from any atm. After few minutes of detour here and there we could able to locate the atm where we withdrew 400 euros leaving 100 back in my Thomas Cook forex card. Fortunately, i had recovered my Thomas Cook site credentials last night by calling my cousin Priyanshu. I'll tell you, it was quite difficult to call any India's customer care no. from abroad. Feeling now quite relaxed and happy, we came back to our host's place. Packed luggage. It was around 11:30am when we left room to go for Roma termini. We reached San Giovanni metro station via local Bus without giving a penny, which we realised when we got down from Bus and they didn't ask for money as everything was automated. At San Giovanni, we found nobody at the counter to help. Everything was automated there also. One couple took ticket from an automated Italian scripted machine. We didn't understand how we should proceed. We asked for help to that couple. And they drew our ticket to Termini. Pass was for 1 hour in metro of around 2.4 Euros for us. There after we felt little hiccups as it was confusing to find platform but my memsaab help was quite appreciable. Otherwise we could've boarded in the wrong train. Same platform no. were there on both the sides. One was going to Termini and another was coming from Termini. Finally we boarded on the right train. Got down at Termini. Roma Termini was now at walking distance from Termini. It was 1230 when we reached there. We went inside a Novelty shop which was on the way to Roma termini but didn't find anything much attractive or you can say price was little high there. 😜 We arrived at the station.

 

We had already booked the train tickets (Trenitalia) to Ancona 3 months earlier, now we were looking for the right platform. We found it. We had plenty of time so we room around inside the station. And 10 minutes before the departure, platform no. was displayed at the screen. Now we just need to show the mobile ticket and they allowed us to go to the platform. Got into the train, first time in Italia train. It was a second class ticket. So we entered into any second class coach and kept our luggage at the top as we do in India. Sat back at the window seat waiting for the train to start.

It was no rush train. It's better if you take something to eat inside the train as unlike in India you won't get anything to buy inside the train. I don't remember if TTE came to us or not, probably not. The journey was pretty good. At around 6 pm, we now arrived at Ancona station. It was near the port, the station. We could see the sea while arriving at the station. We crossed the platform. Came to the 1st number platform and now we started looking for Uber, but didn't find so we waited for the Bus. After half and hour and with the help of one of their young local we could got into the right Bus as language was little problem there. Very few understands English. Now we arrived at the ferry port. There were very few people on the roads if we wanted to ask for anything. Finally where we reached, there were que to counter to get into the ship but we were told that first we have to buy ticket from ticket counter which was 1km behind from that point. For that, there was regular shuttle to that ticket counter where our passports needs to be checked. So waited for the shuttle and we were little worried a little as we were closer to the departure time and we had to back to the ticket counter and again to come back here. But after a little wait, shuttle came, we rode and arrived at the counter but that shuttle left. We finished our formalities as we were going from Italy to Croatia. Waited a little over there also for shuttle to come. Shuttle came, now we rode and arrived at that ferry port where only 2 of us and one more young girl were left to board to SNAV ship who came with us in that shuttle. Now finally we boarded to the ship. It was amazing inside it. Staffs were there to welcome and direct us. Restaurants and bar were there inside that ship. We located our seats at the second floor deck where at that time no one had arrived, put our luggage and now happily explored around a bit. Filled with joy and excitement we went everywhere where inside that ship. We went to the roof top where we can see the mesmerizing view of Ancona City and that chilly wind.

 

Oh my God, i love it. Clicked many pics with my heartbeat. It was so chilling yet so wonderful and amazing experience. Unfortunately she had only one jacket that too was mine for the entire Europe trip. Lol. It was so amazing to watch the City leaving behind us as ship started to depart. 

 

Even then we enjoyed a lot over there. After having lite dinner at the restaurant we headed back to our place.

 

It was not a cabin but we found place to sleep.

Day 4(07-05-19):

Next morning, so wonderful, mesmerizing and unexplainable view. Omg. We once again went to the roof top. Watched the City, Split to welcome us. It was soooooooooooooo amazing view. Once again clicked plenty of pics and recorded the scenes. The first view of Croatia, it was superb, amazing, exciting and so wonderful. 

We arrived at around 8-830. One more stamp in our passport to enter the country of pure nature. So pure the air you won't wanna leave. But we were just arrived. 😊☺️😍

Split, so amazing City and our booking via airbnb was also quite near. Hardly 400 metre from the port and quite near to Decliotian palace, the City center. We walked to our host place bypassing the side City. After reaching to the location, it was a bit, just a bit difficult to locate the house as my call was getting disconnected after 30 secs at each attempt(i don't know). So, messaged over app. Finally located the house by matching images shown in airbnb app. Tatjana lady was so helpful at the reception. She also informed us that today is a special day in the City and function is getting organized and we can witness that if we reach there in the City by 10 am. We got into room, changed our dresses and got ready to go out to watch the City of love and the today's function. We arrived and it was huge crowd of people to watch the City show. Unlike India, pigeons were quite friendly over there. They don't move even if you go near to them. We room around the function's shops. So many unique novelties but quite expensive for Indians. We enjoyed the function. They were celebrating City anniversary.  

After that it was 10:30am so we started to walk to the streets of the City. We reached at one of the tourist center shop. From there we booked 11:30am city tour bus(green line) but we had missed early morning bus which would have covered more view points of the City. But this was also great as it was going to cover Vranjaca cave, Klis fortress, Stella croatica (botanical garden), and one more point which idont remember Plus Diocletian's palace tour of Split which was at the city center. After booking green line Bus we came out from that shop and lady Maria was selling tickets for 5 Island and blue cave trip for next day.

 

We compared with few tourist agencies and finally booked with Maria for the tomorrow's trip to 5 Island and blue cave trip. We went back to our hotel and came back to catch green line Bus departing at 11:30am. First we went to botanical garden which has plenty of Croatian herbs and Croatian herbal snacks. It was nice and unique experience. From there we went for fort visit. Afterwards it was mind-blowing cave.

 

I can tell you that there is no such cave in India. I became quite thirsty so I bought 500ml of water which costs me around 10 euros. Now we headed back to the place from where we had started (near Diocletian's palace). Now next turn was to walk in the streets of Diocletian's palace. For that we had to ask for guide as she had forgotten that, still that part is pending of that tour. One another guide came and we went ahead with him. It quite nice experience the things which he told us. It took around 1 hour to visit the streets of that palace by that time it was 6:30pm when we completed the palace visit. We were quite hungry so we went for veg Pizzas. Veg Pizzas 😅😅. And yes we found it. We ordered one by one 2 Pizzas and finished within 10 min. Now we headed back to our host's place. Took rest for half an hour or one then went back to the City market by ourselves as it was hardly 5 minutes by walk from our residing place and also again in the streets of Diocletian's palace.

 I very much liked the veg Pizzas and the shops of that palace in these streets. There were GOT shops also. Candy shops and many more. I remember one Shop from which we asked the price of one jacket and after 30% discount it was costing us 350 Euros which is 28000 indian rupees. We ran from that Shop. We had planned to buy many things but now our plan got changed😅. We bought but not as many as we had thought. We were planning to buy one lady cap also but we didn't. 😅 Now it was 9:30 or 10 maybe. Diocletian's palace and the city is at the bank of Adriatic sea. Night view was quite wonderful and from there we started to walk the streets of palace once again. It was really amazing City, Split. The City of love i would say. One baby we saw, he looked like as if its a rubber doll. Once you see that baby, you would like to stare again and again.  Maybe it is because of their climate which quite pure in nature, no pollution at all. So pure. The people. They were quite nice and friendly. We now headed back to our place at around 10pm and slept till 7am in the morning.

 

Day 5(08-05-19):

Woke up at 7am. We now had to catch the boat we had booked yesterday for 5 Island and blue cave tour. It costed us around 100€ per person. So in roughly ₹16000, we both covered the full day (8 hours) trip. We reached at the spot 10 minutes prior to the scheduled time. We saw no one there. But soon one red boat came. Maria also came along with their friends. She handed us over to their new lady friend. We boarded to the boat with few more people. They provided us the windy jacket also. Now the amazing ride started in the Adriatic sea with quite an amazing speed. It was so lovely, amazing, chilly yet so mesmerizing and wonderful. I would love to ride that trip again and again in future. And the views, omg, so beautiful and awesome. 

 

Our first point of stop was at Bisova Island from where we took small boat which was organised by tour agency itself to Blue cave spot.

Blue cave entry point was amazing. Keeping our head down we reached inside of incredible and miraculous Blue cave. You won't forget once you see this. It'll be a lifetime memory. In one hand, I was holding phone and in other I had DSLR. Trying to capture each and every tiny details but at the same time I was trying not to miss that spectacular view from my own eyes. I could see the tiny fishes running in the Blue water. That look was like we were in a real life Avatar movie ambience. It was so breath taking. 

 

And after coming out from Avatar World, we saw Monk seal cave. It was having quite narrow pathway in the rocks of sea. Now moving forward, we headed for Komiza Island. Spend around 30 minutes on that Island and moved towards an amazing bay, called Stiniva bay. The landscape was quite beautiful. We once thought they'll give chance to dive us in. But that beauty was just for eyes.

 

3/4th of the Bay was surrounded by pillar rocks with an opening for us to enter and 1/4th was beach with white sand like snow and crystal clear water.

 

We came out from that mouth watering bay and headed towards Green cave. We went inside of an amazing sea cave watching the walls of giant cave and whispering about lite sulphur smell coming from the walls. We could see the light coming out from the holes at the ceiling of that cave. It was quite wonderful. Now we headed to our next Island.

 

Budikovac Blue Lagoon. It was an open secluded beach where we were allowed to jump in. Two girls from our group put off their clothes and jumped into the sea in their bikini suit. My memsab was like hennnn🤔😯... keeping her mouth wide open. After that few more people jumped in. The water was quite cold. We didn't had guts to even think about that. Spending around 30 minutes over still boat and taking few shots we headed towards Hvar Island. This Island was quite famous for winemaking zone in Croatia and is also known as 'Island of lavender'. We got down in Hvar. We were quite hungry so headed towards a restaurant  As time was limited we couldn't visit any vineyards. Now we were at the restaurant and ordered 'rice with rocket salad' thinking that it'll be something very spicy. We were laughing when we received the order. It was boiled rice with butter and some green leaves (we Indian call it 'saag'). That was the rice with rocket salad 😅.

 

After having lunch we room around the beautiful Island and City Hvar. A bit. We had video call with my mom. You can see how happy she was watching both of us in a foreign country and on an island. Memsab was not wearing any bangles which my mom could notice and my mom didn't say much but my memsab got worried a bit that my mom saw and could notice that she was not wearing any such thing. I felt so good making my mom watch us and on a foreign land with all our happiness. We shown her how beautiful this country was over video call itself. Mom was quite happy coz we were looking quite good also in video. One thing which I loved about Europe is that you'll get open WiFi everywhere. We were on video call to our home on an island with an open WiFi network. Everyday what I was doing is that my phone's memory gets full at the end of the day so I was uploading all my pics to my Google drive account and within few minutes (roughly 2-3 minutes), 1GB of our data gets uploaded with open WiFi. That way i could manage my phone's memory space.

It was around 3:30 evening when we were on video call to our home. While strolling around the streets of Hvar, we saw a board where 7 Kuna to use washroom was written. We were like 🤣🤣🤣. 7 kuna is roughly 72 Indian rupees. After spending around 2 hours on that Island we headed back for Split City, the City of Love. Now it was around 5 pm and we could see the Split. We got down. Went to our room, took 10 min rest and headed back to Diocletian's palace Pizza Shop. Had wonderful veg Pizza and bought one parcel also to have dinner. We had to book a short distance Bus to Dubrovnik so we went ahead to bus stand which also quite near to walk. Dubrovnik was just 4 hours from Split. We booked the ticket from Bus stand office and afterwards a little adventure in the evening. We took shortcut to go to our room which happened to be crossing the railway lines in a foreign country. I took the risk which was not at all a risk and we crossed the lines as we do in India and reached to the platform. It felt like we are somewhere in the streets of India only. After exiting from platform we crossed few buildings and touched the main road after which we entered to our room street. It was really fun. We went for early bed as we had to wake up quite early. We had booked 6:30 am bus. 

 

Day 6(09-05-19):

It was drizzling outside when we started to leave. Anyway we left the room(...). Arrived at the bus stand at around 6:15 am. Few more people were waiting there. Our bus was little late. We departed at around 6:50 am. We had two heavy luggage (one suitcase and one big backpack). They charged 7 kuna for each to keeping it in the luggage cabin which was at the bottom of the bus. Now we were thinking, next time we'll keep them to ourselves nearby to our seats. But it's okay. We didn't had breakfast. On the way they stopped at road line restaurant. We bought one veg burger to our seats which i can tell it was just a cheese slice between a bread. Watching the euro local roads we arrived in Dubrovnik bus stand at around 11am. I had marked the Airbnb room in the Google map so we booked the Uber and paid in cash somewhere around 11-15 euros. Driver was quite helpful as it was little difficult to find that house even though it was marked on map. I told driver not to wait for me and i let him go saying I'll call the owner and I'll find the house. I called lady owner and we got to know that it was upstairs. The house. It was approximately around 60-70 steps to stairs. After reaching at some point I could see the owner and she came down to help us with our luggage. We finally got our room. The view from the house was amazing, as the house was a bit on high ground. Adriatic sea was looking so mesmerising and so was the weather. The weather was as if it'd rain but it didn't till next 3 hours. Definitely room was amazing with all white texture. We went out for Dubrovnik fort which was in main gate city area. Booked with Uber took us around 15 euros what I remember. We reached old Dubrovnik City main gate bus stand. It was around 1:15pm evening there. With all the pizzas everything, this time we ate banana. Went at the point from where the scene was breathtaking. The Adriatic sea and the sound of it's wave against the fort wall, the breeze around us was making me so exciting to forever live in this country.

 

The spot was just front of a restaurant. Spending few minutes over there, we went to visit the fort by ourselves.

 

There was no fee to enter to fort. As soon as we entered I felt like wow... I started remembering the GOT tv series scenes. It was nice there but with lot of tourists. Just right to us there was tourist help centre. We went inside. Looked down on a map placed there, envisaged the scenic places in Dubrovnik City. We took the map and came out. Then we walked around in almost all the streets inside the fort except terrace top walls of the fort. To walk around the top walls, there were charges to be paid and that would required a bit more time also. So we left top walls and moved around more streets of that fort. We exchanged currencies in Kuna there itself in one of the forex shop. It was amazing there. 50% of the time I correlated those paths, monuments and streets with the scenes of GOT. 

 

The most fascinating thing was that the entire city was super clean. There was no dirt in any streets of the fort. You can literally sleep on those fort roads. You can see in the pictures here. Unlike India or any other Asian country's forts, those fort wall's colour was creamish white even after getting hundreds years of old which indeed was great besides it's look. From one of the shops inside the fort we had pizzas again. After having pizzas we came out and went further ahead of the fort. The same road was leading to a perfect beach. We didn't go down instead we clicked few photos and kept it for the next day. 

 

As it was about to rain. Now we came back to the old city gate side and bought raw rice and fruits from a nearby supermarket for dinner. I remember, we went looking for pickles and pulses for our khichdi recipe in one of nearby shops. But nobody could understand what we were trying to say. Instead they were showing some sea animal kept in jars which felt quite obnoxious and weird to us. Later, after coming to India, one of my close friend Ajit told us that I should've asked for lentils in place of pulses. Ohh yea, it'd have been better I realised. Anyway, It wasn't raining yet. We started to walk for our lodge. On the way, we encountered rain yet we were enjoying.  

 

 

We also found lock fences on our way. It was really nice to actually see people locking their faith and belief to almighty God. We finally came to our room. Took rest. Clicked photos again. Video called our home in conference with my sis in Paris and my granny. It was such an amazing day. We somehow cooked our Indian food khichdi in a kettle. Had dinner and slept.

 

Day 7(10-05-2019):

Today, we had planned to visit Lokrum Island where we were supposed to see GOT iron throne. Woke up at around 7 am. Had fruits as breakfast and we headed for old Dubrovnik City through cab. We knew where we would get the ferry for Lokrum Island. We reached there and we saw a ferry was about to leave. Asked for the ticket from an unknown person, he said we can get one in the boat. So, we boarded on to the ferry. So excited we were. Wow...!!! Now we were on the move. Dubrovnik is popular tourist destination in the world. There were people from all around the world in that boat. From USA to Africa, India to China, all were there. 

 

We now reached at the Lokrum Island. After reaching there, we realised why GOT team chose this deserted habitate yet charming place. 

 

In almost 3 hours we had planned to leave this Island. The last boat to return was till 18:00 pm only. But we had to cover nearby beaches also. So, we ourselves, started exploring the Island. In my view, it was quite nice spot to spend a peaceful time amidst the nature. There was small lake and waterfall also. Now we went towards finding the iron throne. It was gifted to the city of Dubrovnik people as a souvenir after completion of the series. 

 

There was a small queue to sit on this throne. She was quite hesitating to sit on that throne. But sometimes all you need to do is to compel or to blackmail. So i did that. And afterwards she was happy also that I compelled her to do that. Though, it was nothing big deal to achieve that. It was just for fun. We went on exploring few more columns at that Island and we landed near the dead sea bank. Clicked few shots and took little rest over there.

 

Overall, it was a nice place. The day was sunny also and that was good for us. Because earlier day, due to rain, we couldn't cover much ground yet we enjoyed the rain also. Now we went ahead further more and saw few people bathing in the local waterfall and in a small pond-cum-lake.

 

 

After having fruits once again to fill the appetite, we rolled back to the exit from the Island. After coming back to city we moved towards the Banje beach. For us, it was first time in the foreign beach. And just to let readers know that it was not a nude beach. But yea, like seen in movies, it was a beach where people can be seen in shorts and bikinis  sprawling and basking.

 

And it was quite a nice wheather. We collected some pebbles from the shore. It was quite smooth and shiny. We spend quite a lot time there. There was one a Chinese boy shivering and bathing with their parents. There was one Indian couple also. Though we didn't talk to anyone. We were just enjoying in ourselves. The beach was not crowded like Indian beaches. Clicked many shots from my DSLR. At around 5 pm we headed back for our place. This time, it was not raining. It was fresh and shiny wheather. Walking down the padestrian, side view from city looked amazing Adriatic sea. Calm and bluish and so serene.

 

Many times i thought of staying permanently here. Thinking someday, may be for business opening purpose or bringing an idea to implementation, I'll come back here. To stay in the pure nature city. I'm not saying India is not nature clean state. I'm a great fan of my himalayan region which is pure nature. I'm just admiring the beauty of Croatia. In our hotel here in Dubrovnik, we can easily drink tap water. It's so pure. Here, birds are quite friendly. They won't shoo away when you go near them. Around 9 pm, our bus to Karlovac City was scheduled. The bus stop was just 1-2 km away from our stay location. We reached at our place. Packed our luggage and met our owners. They were friendly. We forgot to click pictures with them. They invited us to visit inside their house. It was a nice house. Now we headed for bus stop via shortcut way crossing residential parks and stairs. We are now just few meters away from our bus stop. It was around 7-8pm. It was at coast side. We had to exchange currency also. So, I asked for ATM from one of the citizen who was stowing his boat. He was offering more help than we had asked. We felt a bit strange so we moved forward managing without disrespecting him. We found one ATM i exchanged few Kunas. At the bus stand, we had to wait a little for the bus. Bus came, we got into that with night dinner as burger from one of the bus stand's shop.

 

Phew. It was quite a nice day.

 

Day 8(11-05-2019): 

It was around 5:30 in the morning. In half an hour our bus would reach Karlovac. We reached there. There were no people except one ticket cashier at the one of ticket counter. Other ticket counters were void. We asked for two tickets for Plitvice Lake. Around 2.5 € per person we were ready for bus. Waited. My memsaab had to use washroom but there was some fault at entry gate machine. It allowed her to go in but was not letting her go out from washroom. While bus had arrived and I was waiting there for her and I had to waive driver to stay a bit. Somehow she managed and crawled a little too to come out of that. We got into the bus. What a relief!!! Now we were at Plitvice Lake at around 8:30 am. Front gate was looking like an usual park gate. There were options to deposit our luggage in the locker room. We deposited our luggage by ourselves and submitted the key. It was free of cost service. To fill out appetite, we had French fries and our own snacks. The gate was scheduled to open at 9'o clock. The open wifi service was quite awesome there. We now came in a queue for the entry to national park. Inside map of Plitvice Lake was displayed at the entry gate. There was a total of around 8km travel distance inside the park to cover most of the parts of the lake. We went inside now. And the first view was fabulous. It was top view of the inside paths and waterfalls associated with those paths. It was super amazing and well organised routes. 

 

Now we started our journey with our home country snacks: fried peanuts packet. We were quite excited and cheerful. We started to move along the paths made to tour the lake. Words would be less to express those scenes. There were hundreds of waterfalls side by the paths. From large size to the mini ones. They were so beautiful and breathtaking I just wanted to be there at every weekend for picnic. Paths were made up of wooden planks. Our entire journey was almost a 8km trek having routes which required travel by boats / steamer. It was one of the best spot of our Europe trip. We crossed so many waterfalls and bridges under which there were artificial structures submerged in the crystal clear water. In one spot, it was so serene that we sat there and spent few minutes and clicked many shots from different angles. 

 

 

We had most amazing moments there. Though my memsaab had never been any treks before, she loved it. The spot which i loved the most. 

 

It was so beautiful and mesmerising that it fill my heart and brain with enormous joy every time I think about it which i cant express in words. Have a look on few more clicks of this national park. 

 

We traveled through ferry over the lake unraveling the deep areas of the National park. After reaching the other side and traveling few more kilometres, it was leading to the back side gate of the lake from where buses were there to take us to the usual side/front side/crowded side of the park from the deep jungle areas. We were still inside the National park heading towards the maun gate. When we were about to leave the park, an echelon of Gujaratis were entering to the park. There were roughly in 40-50 in numbers. We were quite surprised to see them here, especially in Croatia. Because, we had never seen such a huge Indians rambling on Croatian soil. It was about 2 pm. So it took roughly 5 hours for us to complete the park tour. 

Or you can say it was roughly 5 hours trek. During our tour we had seen a married couple in their 75+ age. And they were quite happily covering all the parts of the lake. It was quite lovely to see them. Now we had to take bus to Zagreb at 3 pm so that we could catch our next bus from Zagreb to Venice at 6:30 pm. We had already booked our ticket for that. But for the bus which would start from Plitvice Lake to Zagreb, we had not booked this ticket as it quite short distance travel. Anyway, we booked this ticket after coming out of the National park. We had lite lunch. Picked up our submitted luggage. Now waited for the bus. Bus came little late. So, at around 3:30 pm we boarded the bus which was coming from different City via Plitvice Lake. One more Indian couple were sitting behind our seat who also had boarded with us from Plitvice Lake. We reached Zagreb at around 5:45 pm. It was quite a huge bus stop. Somehow, we could locate our bus terminal from where our bus was supposed to start. Bus had not been arrived there by that time. We again waited there. After the arrival of the bus, i went to fetch a little dinner-cum-snacks for our journey. Starting at 6:30 pm, this bus had to reach Venice by 12:30 am by crossing 3-4 countries in between. We already had the booking of airbnb hotel in Venice. But there we had one small problem. While booking on airbnb, it had been mentioned there that entry won't be allowed after 10 pm. So we had requested them to please allow us at around 12 am but the host denied. He said that he can allow us latest by 11 pm. So we thought of booking another hotel room but then thought, okay we would check-in in the morning and decided to stay somewhere near Bus Stop in Venice. Thinking that there would be some place to wait and relax at the Venice bus stop. And it turned out, it was quite a mistake thinking that. The only major mistake you can say. This all we planned inside the bus of the journey of Zagreb to Venice. It was around 11:30 pm.

 

Day 9 (12-05-2019):

Now, at around 12:45 am, we arrived at the Venice bus stop (C8R5+R4 Venice, Metropolitan City of Venice, Italy). And now we realised that this was the very bad day of our entire Europe trip. We had thought that there would be a place to sit or a waiting room or restroom but sadly... Nada. It was unbelievable. No place to even sit and wait. Above all, the entire day was wet. It rained from morning to evening so we couldn't tour the city. We then finally arrived to the Venezia S Lucia in the afternoon. We directly went for the waiting room. After arriving there, we moved to KFC to sate our hunger. For me only option was to have potato puffs. We had it there. I had packed that for our ongoing journey also. It was around 11am when we reached there. We then came back to waiting room as it was cold out there we decided to stay inside waiting room as much as possible. Though it was not a waiting room, it was a enquiry room or hall you can say. But somehow we managed to stay for quite a long time there. We had videocon to our home and pooja also. I uploaded all of my phone's pictures to Google drive as wifi speed was quite fabulous there. 1 GB of data took just 5 minutes to upload. That fast!!! At around 4 o'clock we left enquiry room and room around the station a bit. It was still raining outside but we were inside the railways shaded premises and quite safe. After few minutes we went for evening snack in a mini mall there at the station. Bought few things and had a veg burger. By that time it was around 6 pm. Now we were standing along with many people to go at the respective platform. As platform number for our train was not displaying so we were waiting to see the platform  number. After waiting for around 30-40 minutes they displayed it. Roughly it was around half and hour before the train departure they displayed it on the menu board. What a relief! We went on to the platform. Our train was right there. We finally boarded the trenitallia in our 88 coach number with lower and middle birth. Like in India, here also people exchange their seats. We were also requested by a senior citizen couple and we agreed. It was fine. Phew! It was quite a day. You can say, that day weather was not with us. And it's totally fine. We learnt a lot. In train, we were asked to give our passport to TTE which was surprising for us. I followed the TTE to his chamber for just in case situation. Fortunately nothing happened. At night around 3 am Swiss lady police came, woke me up and handed over the passports to us. Thanks! A big one. 

Day 10 (13-05-2019)

Wow. What a morning and outside scenery from the train was amazing. Clicked a lot of pics. 

 

Farms were quite big and surprisingly very clean. I couldn't see even a leaf fallen on the farm grounds. One feet narrow paths between one to another farm land were also super clean. No cattles were roaming here and there. It was just the nature's landscape with plants and trees. That's all. But it was attractive. Like in India, our train also was 2 hours late. Our train arrived at 11 am instead of 9 am crossing almost 5-6 countries.

 

After landing on France we changed our dress at our booked hotel in Paris and without any delay we went for breakfast to one of nearby Chinese shop. We now went to find the hop-on hop-off bus. Purchased the tickets which was of roughly 34 € per person for blue line bus. It was going to cover Opera Garnier -> Louvre museum (Iconic glass pyramid leading to museum) -> Pantheon -> 18th century plaza with Egyptian obelisk (Place de la Concorde -> Arc de Triomphe -> Trocadero -> Eiffel Tower. 

Our day trip ended with visit of Eiffel Tower. We went back at our booked hotel (V9J2+9M Paris, France). And yes, I forgot to tell you that I had lost my dslr's one spare battery in a Chinese shop where we had breakfast. We tried to look for that but no luck. Anyways, these things happens when you go out. After having dinner, we went out for walk in the late night to the bridge (Pont Neuf)  where CNES office was there and Eiffel tower was also visible. From our hotel location, it was roughly 2-3km. My Memsaab was little hesitating to go out at that hour but finally we agreed and went. It was a lovely moment walking down in the streets of Paris all by ourselves. 35 minutes walking distance we covered in 45-50 minutes. My Memsaab felt little tired after walking around 30 min but as we reached there. She felt quite happy. Yes, ofcourse! She saw the tower. The Eiffel tower. We spend more than half an hour there at the side of the bridge. It was a semi-circular space for pedestrian or tourist to sit. Below the bridge, Seine river was flowing. And banks were quite clean. From that point at the bridge, Pont des Arts building was also looking quite lovely. It was quite calm and lovely night with pleasant chilling breeze. I wanted to spend more time but we had to leave.

 

Day 11(14-05-19):

Finally, in the next morning we were at Paris airport heading back to my country. One more interesting thing happened at the airport. When we reached at the terminal we were started looking for airport lounge where we can use our priority passes. But we came to know that, that particular lounge was not at this terminal. It was over T1 or T3, I don't remember. And for that we will have to pass through emigration counter. But it was no worry for us. We had plenty of time. We crossed the emigration counter to reach there. And Alas! ☺️ We both availed the lounge facility. Enjoyed there also and once again through emigration counter we entered to our destined terminal. 

Our flight was not direct flight to India. It was Alitalia flight. So it was flying via Rome. Small problem we faced at Rome that our next connecting flight time gap was just sufficient. So, while catching the flight we had to rush a little. But later we realised that they waited for all the passengers to come then only flight took off from Rome. 

Now we had almost completed our journey. It was quite an amazing experience in a foreign country for my first international travel. We really loved our entire trip to Europe.